Sparkling Science

Eligibility criteria

Sparkling Science has set itself the target of connecting high quality research directly with the promotion of junior researchers and to increase young people’s interest in research by supporting ambitious scientific cooperation projects between research institutions and schools.

The aim of the initiative is to create a double added value for research and education: On the part of research innovative scientific findings will be gained. On the part of education close contacts with the science system will be established and schoolchildren will get the opportunity to get in direct contact with state-of-the-art knowledge at school already. This is enabled by means of Citizen Science cooperations.

Sparkling Science only supports projects,

that take into account the state-of-the-art in science

in which schoolchildren work side by side with researchers and make contributions that are relevant for the achievement of the research goals

in which the contributions of the schoolchildren are embedded so neatly that the project results comply with the valid scientific quality standards.

Who can submit projects?

Research projects can be submitted by university and non-university research institutions, private universities, universities of applied sciences and university colleges of teacher education. The project leader will be the institution submitting the project.

Coypright Martin Posset

General conditions

Project proposals can be submitted in all fields of research.The maximum duration of the project is two years. It, however, can be extended in well-justified cases. The maximum funding is 170,000 euros. In case of projects dealing with specific measures for the support of girls and women and/or projects that immerse themselves more deeply in gender-related aspects of the research issues examined these amounts can be exceeded by up to 10 %.

Support for girlsMINT projects in which special support measures for girls are implemented may exceed the maximum funding by up to 10%. The additional funds are earmarked for these measures.

Support of focus areasProjects of universities or universities of applied sciences with special foci in the area of research and educational cooperations may exceed the maximum funding by up to 20%, if they implement specific measures to develop these focus areas further. The additional funds must be used for these measures.

Sparkling Science - a programme of Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy

Programme organisation: Austrian Agency for International Cooperation in Education and Research (OeAD-GmbH